>
> I'm not trying to elevate the Serbs to the same moral position as
> the Palestinians. I don't think the variable in these question is how
> intrinsically moral each group is. Usually it's a question of power. The
> Israelis and the KLA have in common -- to varying degrees -- the support of
> the most powerful nation on earth. The U.S. became friends with Israel and
> enemies with Serbia. The Serbs knew they and the KLA weren't going to be
> allowed to fight each other indefinitely without a lot of pressure from the
> Europeans, Russians, Americans, and the U.N to settle their differences.
> That's why they decided to at least start to deal.
>
> But the KLA knew the Americans wanted, for their own reasons, to
> bomb the Serbs and occupy Kosovo with NATO. So they had a lot of leverage.
> That's why they flabbergasted everyone when they wouldn't sign Rambouillet
> at first. That's also how they extracted the promise of a referendum on
> independence, which violated the original Contact Group principles for
> negotiations. (It was rejectionist, you might say.)
This seems odd. The KLA should not have done what they did because the US and NATO has an interest in the Balkans?
Firstly, as far as I can gather, until recently (under Thaci) the KLA has hardly been a united force (rather less united even than township resistance to Apartheid in South Africa).
Secondly, while the KLA at the moment has US support, I think it is pretty clear that that support is provisional - they went from 'terrorists' to 'legitimate representatives'. I think things like this Hedges article suggest that they might be moved back to the 'terrorist' catagory again, particularly if they don't 'play ball' with the NATO occupiers.
Of course the KLA was assisted by NATO in recent months. I don't think, however, that the scale of assistance is similar to the assistance of Israel by the US. Firstly, the monetary scale is just stunningly different, and secondly the Israelis are given large scale weapons by the US, not just small arms. (And, as I recall, not only by the US - Germany gave 'em a couple of submarines to launch nukes from a couple of years back)
While the KLA should certainly not be above criticism, I tend to agree with Nathan - Serb nationalism and the Kosovar Albanian response to it are not on the same level.
NATO OUT OF THE BALKANS - SELF DETERMINTION FOR THE KOSOVARS - FULL RIGHTS FOR MINORITIES
Peter -- Peter van Heusden : pvanheus at hgmp.mrc.ac.uk : PGP key available 'The demand to give up illusions about the existing state of affairs is the demand to give up a state of affairs which needs illusions.' - Karl Marx